Anna Schaeffner, Soft Collision at Ars Electronica 2024. Copyright: vog.photo / Ars Electronica Flickr
Projects by Anna Schäffner and Clemens Winkler Exhibited in the 45th edition of the Festival
This year's Ars Electronica Festival in Linz featured projects by Cluster Members. Anna Schäffner's project »Soft Collision« (2024) was shown as part of the S+T+ARTs Prize. Meet the Artist sessions provided inspiring moments of exchange and debate with a diverse audience. Clemens Winkler's students of the MA Studio »Spiel&Objekt« at the Ernst Busch University of Theatre Arts Berlin were nominated for this year's Ars Electronica Campus Award. Congratulations on this honor!
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Bi-Leaf - Morphology of a Movement, Antonia Dönitz, Master Thesis Textile and Material Design, 2024. Image Copyright: Antonia Dönitz / weißensee school of art and design
Student Projects On View in Collaboration with »Matters of Activity«
On July 20th and 21st, 2024, 12.00–8.00 pm, weißensee school of art and design berlin will open its studios for the traditional Open House. Also this year, there will be the opportunity to learn more about the design research projects and students’ works developed during the previous year, some of them in cooperation with or in classes led by researchers of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.
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At the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts public annual meeting on Wednesday, July 10th, Senior Co-Director of »Matters of Activity« Horst Bredekamp was accepted as a full member of the Fine Arts Department. We warmly congratulate Professor Bredekamp on this honor. Founded in 1948 by the Free State of Bavaria as the »highest entity for fostering art«, the Academy's mission is to contribute to the intellectual debate within the arts and between society and to advocate the dignity of art.
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We warmly congratulate our Cluster Member Sharon Macdonald who has been nominated for membership of the Academia Europaea for her »outstanding achievements as a researcher«. She also has been elected as Vice-Chair of the Academic Committee of the House of European History. Macdonald is Professor of Social Anthropology with a focus on museums and cultural heritage at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Director of the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik.
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Flyer Symposium Regine Hengge
35 years of the Regine Hengge Lab
The symposium celebrated the key scientific contributions of Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge and her laboratory over the past 35 years in the field of Microbial Stress Responses: from the stationary phase and general stress response to regulatory networks, second messengers, biofilms, and the interface of science and art. Talks will feature Hengge Lab members, collaborators, and colleagues, presenting personal and historical research perspectives and, importantly, vignettes of their latest exciting discoveries and insights.
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Project PERISKOP. Copyright: Digital Surgery Lab, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Interdisciplinary Teams Want to Empower Patients Through VR Experiences and Robotics
On April 22nd, 2024 the Charité Foundation awarded the Max Rubner Award 2024 to four members of »Matters of Activity«, Zeynep Akbal, Moritz Queisner, Igor Sauer, and Claudia Müller-Birn, among others. Our warmest congratulations on this prestigious award!
The researchers and their colleagues from the Digital Surgery Lab at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin want to use the award money to advance the PERISKOP project, which focuses on reducing preoperative anxiety and uncertainties of patients in the operating theater environment. The »Communication Robot in the Emergency Department« project, in which Claudia Müller-Birn (FU Berlin) is involved, aims to improve communication and check-in processes for patients in the emergency department. more
The researchers and their colleagues from the Digital Surgery Lab at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin want to use the award money to advance the PERISKOP project, which focuses on reducing preoperative anxiety and uncertainties of patients in the operating theater environment. The »Communication Robot in the Emergency Department« project, in which Claudia Müller-Birn (FU Berlin) is involved, aims to improve communication and check-in processes for patients in the emergency department. more
GOLD Textiles from collagen. Image: Denny Sachtleben WINT Design Lab
Ecodesign Award 2023
We warmly congratulate Cluster Member Felix Rasehorn: His design and research lab WINT won the eco-design award 2023 in the category concept for the collaborative research project »GOLD Bio-textiles for sustainability«. As part of a research initiative, the GOLD project investigated goldbeater’s skin, a type of tissue found in cow gut. This elastic membrane was characterized biochemically to develop a recyclable, bio-based and vegan high-performance textile.
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Toxic Legacies. Copyright: Leila Wallisser
Leila Wallisser Awarded With German Design Graduates' 1st Prize
Leila Wallisser has been awarded the First Prize of the German Design Graduate (GDG) Committee 2023 in the category »Sustainability and Circularity« for her Master’s Thesis »Toxic Legacies« conducted at weißensee school of art and design berlin, supervised by »Matters of Activity« members Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karola Dierichs and Prof. Dr. Lucy Norris. »Toxic Legacies« is an innovative design project that delves into the world of recycling, shedding light on how the concept of recycling can tend to justify the production of waste in a consumer-based system.
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Anna Schäffner. Photo: Michelle Mantel
We congratulate Pre-Doctoral Candidate Anna Schäffner on her successful application to one of the three VOJEXT S+T+ARTS residencies. The selected artists were announced during the S+T+ARTS presentations at European Robotic Forum 2023 in Odense (Denmark). Each artist will receive 30.000 Euros of funding, mentoring and access to robotics labs from March until December 2023. The goals of the VOJEXT S+T+ARTS residencies are twofold: to push for art-driven innovation and societal understanding of human-robot interactions, and to integrate them in industrial manufacturing robotics that work on construction, arts and crafts. Anna Schäffner is taking part in the Social Robots residency, supported by industrial partner and tech-provider IIT (Fondazion Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia). Her project »Soft Collision« focuses on the design of a new robotic membrane that will demonstrate a form of interaction between human and robot through body language.
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Presenting the Humboldt Award to Heidi Jalkh. Photo: Phil Dera. Copyright: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Cluster member Heidi Jalkh has been awarded for her master thesis »Making matter active through form. Fabricating bio-inspired behavior with auxetic structures« with the Humboldt Award 2022 in the category »Research to Innovation«. Our warmest congratulations! The thesis at the department of Cultural History and Theory and is part of the Master »Open Design« and shows how the use of geometry and spatial arrangement can be used to provide a conventional elastic material with unconventional behavior and functionality. Thus, through interdisciplinary research, Heidi Jalkh has succeeded in weaving concepts from biology, materials science, and engineering from a designer's perspective to create new »active materials«.
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Award of an honorary doctorate from the University of Turin to Professor Horst Bredekamp, October 2022. Copyright: Federico Vercellone, Turin.
MoA Co-Director Receives Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Turin University
On Thursday, October 27th, 2022, MoA Senior Co-Director Horst Bredekamp received the Honorary Degree in Philosophy at the University of Turin. The Chancellor of the University of Turin, Prof. Stefano Geuna, conferred the Laurea Honoris Causa in Philosophy on Horst Bredekamp, considered among the most important contemporary researchers of art history, »whose magisterium has enabled us to conceive of the foundational significance of images in all spheres of individual and social life.« We join Professor Bredekamp in celebrating this special appreciation of his comprehensive work with warmest congratulations.
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Paar. Copyright: Gamelab Berlin
The VR dance »Paar« directed by Carly Lave, which premiered at Tieranatomisches Theater in June 2022, has been accepted and awarded into several global festivals, including the FIVARS VR Film Festival Toronto and the DigitalMediaFest Rome. »Paar« won Best Short Film in Virtual Reality at the OneEarthAwards film Festival on September 30th in India. The project was supported through Gamelab Berlin, »Matters of Activity«, and the Tieranatomisches Theater.
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Cluster Co-Director Received the XXI Premio Internazionale Flaiano For His Study of Michelangelo's Life and Work
On July 2nd, 2022, Matters of Activity's Co-Director Horst Bredekamp was awarded the XXI Premio Internazionale Flaiano di Italianistica for the best non-fiction book of the year in non-Italian language in Pescara. We congratulate Professor Bredekamp very warmly for this prize, one of the highest awards given in Italy.
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Portrait Konrad Polthier. Credits: Konrad Polthier
We congratulate Cluster Member Konrad Polthier on the honoring of his outstanding achievements. The John A. Gregory Award is the highest award in the field of Geometric Design. It is presented to one or more individuals for ›Fundamental Contributions to the Field of Geometric Modelling‹. Konrad Polthier receives the price for his lifetime impact on the field.
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Nelli Singer working on the knitted active structures. The design and geometry of the stitches within the knitted structure are responsible for the different reactions at increased moisture content Copyright: Nelli Singer 2020
Our warmest congratulations to Cluster Guest Researcher Nelli Singer who has been awarded two prestigious prices at once for her Master Thesis »Living Beings«. The Materialica Award 2021 of Munich Expo and the ein&zwanzig Design Newcomer Award of the German Design Council. »Living Beings« explores the performative properties of wood through textile techniques and enviromental humidity and was supervised by Cluster Member Christiane Sauer.
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Copyright: Michelle Mantel, Matters of Activity
Günther Anders Prize for Critical Thinking 2022
We congratulate Joseph Vogl on the honoring of his scientific and journalistic oeuvre. The philosopher, literary and cultural scholar holds a professorship at the Institute of German Literature at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and is Regular Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He was be awarded the Günther Anders Award for Critical Thinking 2022 (Günther Anders-Preis für kritisches Denken) on May 8th, 2022 at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Joseph Vogl is Principal Investigator at »Matters of Activity«.
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Copyright: Michelle Mantel, Matters of Activity
Official Kick-Off of International Research Cooperation on Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices
On February 3rd, the virtual inauguration of the Max Planck Queensland Center for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices (MPQC) took place. Together with Distinguished Professor Dietmar Hutmacher (Queensland University of Technology), MoA Co-Director Peter Fratzl (Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces) leads the first Max Planck Center on the Australian continent. The MPQC will explore extracellular matrices and their importance for medicine, ecology, and technology. »With this, we are putting a new field on the research map, focusing not only on biomedical applications, but also on technical ones, such as in architecture,« says Peter Fratzl.
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Horst Bredekamp, Michelangelo. Copyright: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach
Horst Bredekamp's Biography of the Divine Artist Among 15 Nominations
Our warmest congratulations to Cluster Co-Director Horst Bredekamp whose monumental biography of Michelangelo was nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2022 in the category »Non-Fiction/Essayistic«. 15 authors and their works have been nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair, therefore 5 in the category Non-Fiction/Essayistic.
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Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l’intelligence de la main® 2021, Jury Members and Laureates. Copyright: Olaf Avenati
Cluster Professor Patricia Ribault Member of the Jury for the Prestigious French Prize that Rewards Expertise, Creativity, and Innovation in the Crafts
On October 5th, 2021, the winners of the new edition of the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'intelligence de la main® (»the intelligence of the hand«)® 2021 were revealed and celebrated together with those of the year 2020 in a ceremony in Paris. MoA member Patricia Ribault was again part of the prestigious international jury chaired by Jean de Loisy, director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. The competition for professional craftspeople rewards expertise, creativity, and innovation in the crafts. Since its inception in 1999, the prize has become a label of excellence for French crafts, enhancing their reputation and recognizing the talent of nearly 90 individuals working in a number of different fields whose achievements demonstrate »the intelligence of the hand«.
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Call for Applications for TaDA – Textile and Design Alliance Artist in Residence Programme 2022, Copyright: Ladina Bischoff
This year, MoA Director Claudia Mareis was a guest member of the jury for the Artist in Residence program of the Textile and Design Alliance TaDA. The innovative program is aimed at practitioners in the fields of visual art, design, architecture, literature, performing arts or on transdisciplinary projects with a strong interest in textile production and its context. It is run by the cantons of St.Gallen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Thurgau and offers a unique opportunity to work together with renowned textile companies in Eastern Switzerland.
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Elected to United States National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected Max Planck Director and MoA Co-Director Peter Fratzl into its ranks. This honor is »among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer« the NAE writes in its press release. Out of a total of 23 new international members, Fratzl was the only researcher from Germany elected to the U.S. academy this year.
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Hydroweave. Copyright: Stefanie Eichler & Juni Neyenhuys, weißensee school of art and design berlin
The Work was Realized at weißensee school of art and design berlin Within the Framework of the MoA Design Studio
»Hydroweave« by Stefanie Eichler and Juni Neyenhuys was awarded a recognition in the field of »Study« at the Raumprobe Material Award 2020. The project, which centers on a research-based design approach, was created in 2019 at weißensee school of art and design berlin as part of the MoA Design Studio »Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkles« under the direction of Prof. Christiane Sauer. Since 2005, Raumprobe has been a constantly growing online material database and physical material exhibition in Stuttgart. Raumprobe has been awarding the prestigious Material Prize annually since 2013, recognizing special materials.
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Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition »MatCo«
New Research Project at Freie Universität Berlin led by Cluster Member Friedemann Pulvermüller
How is it that humans effortlessly learn a vocabulary of tens of thousands of words and symbols, whereas their closest relatives, the great apes, only manage about 100 characters? How can young children associate so many symbols with meanings without special instruction, and then, after only brief learning, use them to express their desires, feelings, opinions, and fears?
Clearly, these abilities must somehow be related to our brains - or, more specifically, to the differences that exist between our brains and the brains of other species. The »MatCo« project, funded by the European Research Council, is looking at precisely these material bases and mechanisms.
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Connectome construction of a patient with a tumor in the speech-eloquent area of the brain.
The connection strengths of the white matter are shown as edges with a heat map (dark = weak connection, light = strong connection). The cortical areas of the brain and their size are illustrated as nodes in the form of spheres. Additionally, three orange TMS points are shown (TMS = Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). In this case, the patient’s speech network could be non-invasively disturbed in these areas and mapped accordingly.
The visualization of the white matter is based on tractography. The different directions of the white matter can be measured and displayed by means of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja & Image Guidance Lab, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Creation of Personalized Models of the Brain of Tumor Patients
The field of connectomics aims to comprehensively describe the physical and functional coupling among the neural elements of the brain. Creating personalized models of the brain of tumor patients helps to better understand the impact of a brain tumor on the cerebral network and plasticity and functional reserve capacity. Similarly, it helps to improve effects of neurosurgery on the connectome and identify key nodes and edges, i.e., potential high-risk areas for surgery, reveal the network basis of language function in relation to tumors, and predict the course of recovery.
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»The Bark Project«, Charlett Wenig. Copyright: Patrick Walter, MPIKG
Members Charlett Wenig and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten Were Awarded 2nd Place at Idea Competition of »Die Junge Akademie« for »The Bark Project«
The MoA research group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials« is interested in interactions between biological material and its environment. The fact that plants are sessile make them particularly interesting regarding their adaptability and optimization strategies – there is no way for them to escape. Remodeling processes, such as those found in the animal kingdom, are absent and adaptation takes place by growth. The junior research group is jointly funded by »Matters of Activity« and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Surfaces (MPIKG).
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Hybrid Interactions for Neurosurgical Planning. Project Digital Twin. Copyright: Felix Rasehorn
Vote Now Until 30 September 2020
Cluster PhD Candidate and Designer Felix Rasehorn was nominated for the German Design Research Award. The young designers award was endowed with a sum of 1.000€ for the winner. His project »Digital Twin« is an applied research project on the representation and perception of brain matter in neurosurgery procedures that aim to use the operation-planning process as an opportunity to mentally rehearse actions during surgery.
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Residencies between Creative Disciplines and Synthetic Biology
At »Gingko Bioworks – The Organism Company« designers can spend a three month residency working at the intersection of creative disciplines and synthetic Biology. Through an open call process, they invited designers to submit a design project proposal in response to the theme: »Skin: Designing Biological Interfaces«. Cluster Member and Design Researcher Clemens Winkler was part of the jury. The jury members will now provide mentorship during the residency and interact with the residents on a regular basis.
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»Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkels«: Liquid Lacquer. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin / Luis Magg
Audience Online Voting for Most Popular Material Now Open – Vote Now!
Three of the projects from »Scaling Nature 1: Wrinkles« were nominated for the »Raumprobe Materialpreis 2020« – ›the‹ award for special materials. In the project »Scaling Nature 1: Wrinkles« students of the bachelor's program in textile and surface design at weißensee school of art and design berlin investigated material activity in natural structures and developed new design strategies for active surfaces in a spatial context. Until June 16th there is an online voting for the most popular material, selected by the audience – vote for our projects now!
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Funding by European Research Council
Cluster Member Prof. Dr. Dr. Pulvermüller Received Funding for the Project »Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition«
The European Research Council is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. A total of 1881 proposals were submitted, of which 35 ERC Advanced Grants went to Germany. The project »Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition« will be funded with 2.5 million euros and will use novel insights from human neurobiology translated into mathematically exact computational models to find new answers to long-standing questions in cognitive science, linguistics and philosophy.
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Adler Planetarium Chicago. Copyright: James Willamor/ Creative Commons
Stefan Zieme was awarded the 2019 Adler-Mansfield Prize for his paper »Adam Elsheimer and the Renaissance Night Sky«, presented at the 14th Biennial History of Astronomy Workshops, 19-22 June 2019, at the University of Notre Dame.
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